After a good night's sleep, back on the road on way to the Canyon Lands! We were riding through a desert, Weird looking terrain on both sides. Now and then we would pass through some small town. Most of this place comes under the Navajo Indian reservation.
We stopped a couple of places to take some snaps. The highway was really windy at times, you could feel the wind pushing on the car!
The canyon lands national park was not far away, we should be reaching there around noon.
1:07 pm - the canyon lands entrance
After waiting in queue at Grand Canyon entrance, here at Canyon Lands, it looked deserted! less number of people.
1:20 pm - Into the Canyon Lands!
This place truly looked like some other planet! There were some greenary here and there, and some truly amazing rock formations! The prehistoric nature of the rocks are evident from the various colored layers seen through the rock formations.
You can drive the car through the road and stop at some vista points to take some pictures, but the real fun comes when you hike!
Adventure lovers will adore this place, with splendid hiking trails, which take you deeper into the lairs of canyon lands, to boldly go where no motor vehicle had gone before! There is even a 100 mile bike trail!
2:30 pm - Hiking through the Canyon Lands
Armed with plenty of water for each of us, we set on a hiking trail. The trail was marked with small group of rocks stacked on top of each other, here and there.
The hiking gives a feel of exploring a prehistoric planet. Along the way we climbed small hills. It was very windy on top, and provided some breathtaking views.
The whole trail that we were going would go up to the confluence of rivers, where two rivers meet (the green and colorado rivers). As it was late in the day, and the whole hiking trail is about 5.5 miles in one direction, we did not hike the whole trail.
5:00 pm - The "Elephant Hills"
After coming back from the river confluence trail we walked through the "Elephant hills" trail. That was not as good as the first one, but still fun.
We tried in vain to find some rock formation that looked remotely similar to some part of an elephant! Though in our frustration to find one, we discovered new ones like, the "sitting hen" rock, the "snowman" formation etc! :-)
This trail was also intended to be a 4-wheel drive trail. In reality it looked like you need a vehicle trained in mountain climbing to go through the trail! At some places it was difficult even to walk straight. But we did see a jeep struggling through the drive, looked risky at times. You need four or five people, if you get stuck to give the vehicle a little push.
We started to walk back on the trail once the sun started going down the horizon.
8:05 PM
To fully cover the canyon lands we need to take atleast a week, you need to hike long distances and camp inside the canyon lands. But thats another time.
Now, after sunset, its time to leave.
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